The brothers' fools
by Liz Jean Tonks
Summary: A conversation between Dumbledore and Grindelwald/One-Shot/no spoilers for Crimes of Grindelwald


**A/N:** Part of the "Are you crazy enough to do it challenge" -334. (quote) A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool. – William Shakespeare

Don't ask me when this conversation might take place because I have no idea. And it has nothing to do with what happens in the Crimes of Grindelwald because for me that movie cannot really be considered 100% canon any more. So there will be no spoilers in here either. Just a 'random' conversation between Dumbledore and Grindelwald because I have found out that I love Grindelwald.

* * *

Dumbledore turned away. 'You were fooling me,' he said. His voice was empty, the light in his heart had died, buried under the feet of the man in front of him. 'You were fooling us all.'

Gellert Grindelwald merely smiled. 'I was not,' he whispered, and took Dumbledore's hand. 'I know that is what you think, Al... I am sorry... So very sorry. You have been fooled, but not by me.' He made a step towards his friend. 'You have been fooled by yourself.'

Albus stared on his hands.

'Don't doubt us now, Albus,' said Grindelwald quietly.

Albus looked up. 'I don't doubt you, Gellert,' he said. 'I do think I have found out about you – it's me who I doubt. It's me whom I cannot trust. Especially,' he made a step away from Grindelwald, 'especially when I am with the very man that knows me – you.'

Grindelwald made a slight bow. 'True words, Albus, true words... Don't you turn away from the man that knows you, for he can use his knowledge... his power...'

'So you admit it.' Dumbledore's voice was full of disappointment – and regret.

'Oh, no, dear friend, not to fight against you, never.' Grindelwald's lip twitched. 'Even if I didn't know you that well, I would know you have power beyond my one.'

'You flatter me. You know yourself you have powers I will never have.'

'Exactly, Albus, exactly! You see, what I have been telling you, all this time? My power... your power... It's extraordinary if it speaks for itself... If you and I perform magic – for ourselves, but it is something more special, something bigger, something beyond imagination if we combine our powers. When you speak of fooling, Albus, you are not speaking about me fooling you by my offer – you speak about you fooling yourself turning this offer down.'

Albus didn't reply. He just stared at Gellert, just looked at him.

'You are a wise man, Albus, I've always known,' said Grindelwald. 'Surely you know the truth yourself.'

Albus made a step backwards, Gellert made a step towards him.

'You are manipulating, Grindelwald,' he said. 'You are right. I am a wise man. I am no fool, and I will not be fooled.'

'For a wise man, he himself is his greatest opponent,' said Grindelwald. 'That we both know, do we not?'

'I cannot trust you. I know you to well to trust you.'

Grindelwald smirked and laid his hand on Albus'.

'Then, old friend, you know me just as well as I do, because I don't trust myself, either. That's why I wanted to count on you.' Grindelwald smiled. 'Look,' he said, 'there have been wrongdoings on my side, I will not deny it – but I came back. I came always back. And you stand here, too... You have got to see it, Albus – we are closer than brothers – we will always return to one another, that's simply who we are.'

Dumbledore didn't reply.

'Look at the world,' Grindelwald said, stretching out his arms, 'a world, full of fools thinking themselves to be wise men, not knowing the truth... But we, we are different. But only if we are together.'

Dumbledore looked at him. He opened his mouth to say something against this man, something to prove him wrong – but he could not. What Grindelwald was saying was true – and yet wrong.

Only that Dumbledore wasn't ready to see his flaws – he had never been, and he was not up to it now. Everything at school who had called him a great man, they had all been wrong, for he was weak: Weak, because he didn't know what was right, weak, because there always would be Grindelwald for him, the man he trusted, the man who understood him. Grindelwald had known all along, and so had he. Albus stroked over his necklace, lost in his thoughts.

Grindelwald stretched his hand out. 'Come, Albus,' he said. 'Come to me.'

Dumbledore looked up, released his hand from his necklace and reached out for Grindelwald's hand, and for a second they had the same, weird smile on their face.


End file.
